Chapter 16
It is difficult for Bud to wake up the next morning, but when he does, he is a bit embarrassed and also pleased to find that all his things are folded neatly. It makes him think of Momma.
He can hear Miss Thomas talking to Herman about how bad orphanages are and how they have a plan that they’re sticking to. Herman grumbles that he’s going to figure out the true story of Flint. Miss Thomas maintains that she has a good sense for lying and knows that Bud is telling the truth. Steady Eddie adds that he didn’t dig around in the basement for nothing. Bud gets excited.
He performs his ablutions and heads downstairs. Everyone smiles at him but Herman gets up to go look at his instrument. Bud is surprised to learn he slept until noon. The adults invite him to sit and Miss Thomas smiles at him that his ears must be burning. This perplexes Bud but she explains the meaning. She then tells him they had a long conversation about him, which first makes him nervous that they are going to kick him out, but she continues that they’d like him to stay awhile. He grins broadly, and she says he will have to help out around the place and he will have to be very, very patient with Herman. Bud understands, though she adds that he really will have to be strong in spirit and body to deal with Herman. Finally, Miss Thomas holds his face firmly and gently in her hands just as Momma used to do and tells him that sometimes things will be hard and he will tour with the band and sometimes she cannot go, but he will be okay.
Steady Eddie enters and asks if the suitcase Bud carries is the important thing or if it is what is inside. Bud thinks about it and says it’s the things inside. Steady Eddie smiles and says that is good because he can’t carry that ratty bag around. He reaches under the table and grabs a case that he explains used to be his alto saxophone case. Bud is extremely happy and breathes in the smell of it deeply.
The rest of the band comes in and express their pleasure that Bud will be joining them. Steady Eddie says he has one more thing: a recorder for Bud, which looks like a skinny flute. Finally, the men say Bud needs a special name. Miss Thomas wryly tells them that this is a manly ritual she has no interest in, so she departs.
The band members adopt a professional tone and nominate different titles for Bud. “Sleepy” is too simple and “the Bone” too blase, but finally they decide on “Sleepy LaBone,” which is the best name Bud’s ever heard. Mr. Jimmy pretends to announce him to a crowd, and they have him kneel and mock-knight him. Bud can barely contain his excitement, and plans to practice four hours a day to live up to his new name.
Chapter 17
Bud is working hard at mopping the floor of the club, but even though he knows Herman wants to work him really hard, he is having a fun time pretending he is in the boat from "Twenty Thousand Leaks [sic] Under the Sea."
The band starts practicing on their instruments. Mr. Jimmy, Herman, and Miss Thomas come up behind Bud and Miss Thomas compliments him on the floor. They then move to the stage. Herman stands next to his fiddle and pulls the strings. All the instruments begin to blend together and Bud can’t decide which one is his favorite until Miss Thomas opens her mouth to sing. She is amazing, he decides, and she doesn’t even need to sing real words. By the time the piece comes to an end Bud thinks to himself “I could see now why this band got to have six exclamation points behind their name!” (203)
Chapter 18
Bud has been living with the band for about seven days, and he’s already on his third road trip. Miss Thomas stayed behind and Bud rides with the band. They are on their way to Mecosta.
The men are teasing Dirty Deed about being white, but he tells Bud soberly that they have to have a white band member because the Log Cabin has to be in a white person’s name. Sometimes people who book them also assume they are white, but since they’re so good no one minds when they start playing.
The next day Bud learns he has to ride back with Herman, and he is miserably disappointed. He practices his recorder until Herman is ready to go. They get into the car and Herman tells him to pick up a smooth rock near his shoe. Bud, puzzled, picks it up. He then sees that Herman has a bunch of other smooth rocks in the glovebox of the car. Bud picks them up and is surprised to see that they have dates and places on them just like the rocks he has in his case.
He tells Herman this and Herman gruffly says there are rocks all over the place. Bud tells him that his also have writing on them and he will show him. He decides to make Herman wait. They arrive at home and unload the car. Finally Bud opens his case and pulls out the rocks and shows him.
Herman looks at him angrily and asks where he got these. He reaches to take them, which Bud realizes is kind of odd, because he’s never let anyone else touch them before. Herman’s voice turns meaner as he asks where Bud got these from. Mr. Jimmy comes out and Herman announces that Bud stole these from him. Mr. Jimmy kneels down and ask Bud where he got them.
Bud tells Mr. Jimmy that they belonged to his Momma. At the same time Mr. Jimmy and Herman ask, “Your momma?” Mr. Jimmy asks Buddy what he said his momma’s name was, and Bud says he never said. Herman grows even more irate and says Bud is smart-mouthed and disrespectful, but Bud screams out that her name was Angela—Angela Janet Caldwell. Herman’s pipe falls out of his mouth and he stumbles away.
Mr. Jimmy looks at Bud. Bud says that Herman was always lying and he is his father. Mr. Jimmy tells him quietly that not is true, but it does seem true that Herman is probably his grandfather. Bud is surprised, but privately relieved that this mean old man with a big belly is not his father.
Chapter 19
Ever since Herman heard Bud say Angela’s name he locked himself in Bud’s room and would not come out, even when Miss Thomas tried to softly talk to him.
The band members are all stunned and ask Bud questions, such as how his Momma died and what she looked like. Miss Thomas chides Mr. Jimmy for asking the latter but he says he’s just asking what Herman would or will ask. Bud tries to describe her, but then says he has her picture. They all stare at him. He says he will go get it.
Bud runs upstairs and slips into the room. He can see Herman sitting at the little table and crying. Mr. C clearly doesn’t see him there, so Bud quietly gets his saxophone case, opens it, and pulls out the picture. Mr. C is still bawling and Bud wonders if it is all because he is so upset to have Bud as a grandson. He knows from his own experience and rules list that the older a person is, the worse something has to be to make them cry. Seeing an old person cry is much worse than seeing a child cry.
Bud walks over to him and touches his back. Herman notices after a moment and jumps in surprise. He tries to get out some words and can only manage “I” and “I’m so” and “Buddy.” Bud gently corrects him on his name. He then pats his back and shoulder a bit, and walks out.
He sets the envelope down on the table and Miss Thomas opens it and looks at it. She slides it over to Mr. Jimmy and asks if he has any more questions. Mr. Jimmy agrees that it is her.
Bud suddenly has a realization and blurts it out—it’s his Momma’s room he is staying in. Then, confused, he asks why Herman did not come visit him and Momma if they lived so close; then Herman wouldn't be so sad.
Miss Thomas stretches out her arm to Bud and tells him gently that Herman did not know where his Momma was; no one knew where she went. Mr. Jimmy adds that Herman was always hard on the girl and they all told him not to be. Miss Thomas looks at him and suggests he go upstairs and he does. Miss Thomas continues, and says his grandfather clearly has trouble with people sometimes and had high standards with his own daughter. He loved her so intensely but was very strict with her and went overboard. He dreamed she would be a teacher but it was his dream, not hers. He pushed her and she fought him, and eventually she left. No word ever came until now with Bud.
After this Miss Thomas quickly goes upstairs and brings down a small picture of Momma when she was sixteen. She has a soft smile and her eyes look like they are following you no matter what way you hold the photo. Bud asks if it is really for him and she says she’s been waiting for the right owner to come around and now he has.
Miss Thomas then asks Bud if he remembers how sad he was when his Momma died and he nods. She says that he has had four years to come to terms with that but for everyone else here, they are just beginning to deal with it because the news is fresh. She tells Bud Herman has been privately hoping all these years that she will come back, that someday she’ll be in the crowd. The rocks he gathers are for her because one time when she was little she told him she wanted a rock from Chicago. She concludes that Bud should know “that ornery old man upstairs is very, very hurt right now and I just can’t say where he’s going to land after this news gets through blowing him around” (227). She blinks back tears.
Mr. Jimmy comes down and tells her Herman wants to see Miss Thomas. The rest of the Dusky Devastators come in. Steady Eddie says they are looking for Bud; they pulled together some coins and picked up something for him at the pawnshop. Inside the old case is a baby-size horn. Bud is elated, and gives it a blow.
Eddie tells him it’s an alto and is still in good condition for being old. He repadded, reflected, and resprung it. Bud eagerly tells him he will practice all the time and be as good as them in three weeks. They laugh. Eddie says he will be back to practice with him later this evening. The rest of the guys joke with Bud about his being good in three weeks.
Bud gathers all his things and runs upstairs. He looks around the room that he now knows is Momma’s. He sets the photo down but realizes that he doesn’t need to carry a photo of Momma around anymore because he holds her in his heart. It is fitting, though, that he now lives here in her old room. Deza was right—he keeps his Momma inside his heart and can think of her whenever he wants. The rocks can stay here too.
Bud picks up his saxophone and starts to play. It is not perfect but he is so happy about how it sounds. To him the squeaks also sound like the sound of one door closing and another opening. Bud looks at the picture of his mother and actually smiles at her. He says out loud, “Here we go again, Momma, only this time I can’t wait!” (236).
Analysis
The novel comes to an end with a rather surprising twist: Herman is Bud’s grandfather, not his father. Curtis alluded to this earlier with frequent comments on how old Herman was, but it may still surprise some readers. Bud is relieved because he does not want an old man with a big belly for his father, but it is clear he is also happy that he has solved the mystery. Although readers do not get to see what happens afterward between Herman and Bud, there are clues in their last encounter in the bedroom that everything will be alright, if not perfectly harmonious. Furthermore, even if Bud and Herman do not develop the ideal relationship, Bud now has a whole family in the band and Miss Thomas. His dream has come true in that he has a family and a home, as well as enough food, a place to sleep, and, clearly, a future playing jazz.
While this is certainly a happy ending, the last few chapters still possess several darker and more complex elements. There is the scene when Dirty Deed very soberly explains to Bud what racism and segregation mean for the band in that he, the only white man, has to have the club in his name and often undertakes the negotiations for gigs. There is also the fuller sense of how sad Angela Janet Calloway/Caldwell’s life really was. Her father was extremely strict and imposed his own worldview on her; he believed “This is a hard world, especially for a Negro woman...she’s got to be ready” (222-223) but his treatment of her ended up pushing her away from her family. Though we do not know the true identity of Bud’s father, it seems likely that he abandoned Angela and her son at one point. And, of course, there is the fact that she died very young and did not get to continue raising her son.
Bud, Not Buddy is not just an enjoyable read but also an award-winner. The accolades bestowed upon the book derive from Curtis’s ability to craft a novel for children that manages to teach them about the reality of racism and the Depression while still keeping the work hopeful and appropriate for young readers not yet capable of fully grappling with such ugly facets of American life. Critic Jani Barker explores how Curtis does this so successfully, mainly through what she calls the “naive narrator.”
Bud as a naive narrator reveals information to the reader but he doesn’t understand some of it himself; thus, an older reader can glean—from, say, Lefty Lewis’s fear and Dirty Deed’s explanation of why he is a white man in the band—more about the disturbing nature of racism, even though Bud himself does not explicitly delve into it. Bud as a naive narrator also helps foster accessibility and identification, especially as he has “an all-American boy ethos” that is a familiar trope of American literature: “[these boys] are good-natured scamps whose adventurous, independent, energetic natures make them desirable members of society despite mischief and mishaps, and help them land on their feet after all their scrapes.” Bud is funny and has a relish for life, clearly, but he is also trustworthy, sensitive, and perceptive. Barker notes that “identification with the narrator...strengthens the impression of the reality of the events recounted made on the reader.”
Conclusively, even though Bud is black and has a “Black-normed view of the world,” he is still naive about some of the realities of racism and racial violence. His narration reveals this to older readers only through what is alluded to and guessed at.
